


But Cuddling is for Fags

by womenseemwicked



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Affectionate Insults, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Fluff, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Naked Cuddling, Post-Canon, Post-Coital Cuddling, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 16:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12916101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/womenseemwicked/pseuds/womenseemwicked
Summary: Billy and Steve have been getting off with each other in empty locker rooms and the back of Billy's car for weeks, but when Steve invites Billy over while his folks are away, things get a little more... innocent. Billy doesn't know how to feel about this.





	But Cuddling is for Fags

Billy shifts uncomfortably on his back. Steve’s shoulder is digging into him, and the sweat is starting to cool. None of this seems at all appealing.

“Like this?” he questions with distaste.

Steve laughs a little and puts a hand on his shoulder to move him just so.

“More like this,” he demonstrates, pulling Billy into position. “Better?”

Billy huffs a breath, afraid to shrug and ruin the position Steve arranged.

“Whatever. It’s still gay.”

“Yeah,” Steve agrees ironically. “The _scandal_. Fuck me all you want but god forbid we cuddle after.”

Billy sighs. They’ve been over this. Well no, they haven’t really, but Billy feels it ought to go without saying. He tenses up to leave. But Steve slides a hand over his waist and presses lips to his ear.

“Hey,” he says softly. “I’m sorry. Just give it a chance, Bill.”

Steve’s fingers trail over his far hip, gentle and teasing, and Billy is powerless to push him away. He sinks a little deeper into Steve’s arms without quite realizing it.

“Did you play ball back in California?”

The question is so unexpected it takes Billy a minute to process what Steve is even saying. He frowns over his shoulder and then glances away. The closeness of their faces too much for him out of the context of fucking or fighting. Too vulnerable.

“Did I play _ball?”_   he repeats, disbelieving.

“Yeah.” Steve refuses to be embarrassed. “Like for a team or something?” he asks.

Billy shrugs.

“A little,” he says. “Mostly in school though.”

“How about other sports?” Steve's fingers caress slowly over the hard muscle of Billy’s chest, making his skin tingle. Billy resists a shiver.

“My old man wanted me to play football,” he admits. “But that... didn’t work out.”

“Why not?”

Billy slaps Steve’s wandering hand away from his nipple and turns a glare on him.

“Because it didn’t. Okay?”

Steve holds up his hand gently but doesn’t move his arm from its place over his solid waist.

“Okay,” he says soothingly. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you asking this shit, anyway?” Billy sighs, reluctantly allowing Steve to pull him back into his embrace.

“Because I want to know,” Steve says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “I hardly know anything about you.”

“Has it occurred to you that maybe I _want_ it that way?” Billy asks tightly.

“Do you?” Steve’s breath is warm on his ear. Billy doesn’t answer. “I won’t ask you to tell me anything that you don’t want to. I just... want more than to just fuck around with you.”

Billy’s heart does an uncomfortable flip, which he ignores. He turns a distantly teasing smirk upon Steve’s face instead, and raises an eyebrow.

“Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?”

Steve smiles a little and bites his lip coyly.

“Yeah,” he admits.

And Billy wasn’t expecting that. Denial, annoyance, shyness, anger, but not honesty. He has to take a moment to digest that. Doesn’t even notice he’s staring.

“Billy?” Steve is frowning at him now. Concerned. His hand has stopped its wandering and is holding him soft but firm by the side of his chest.

His heart starts beating again uncomfortably, and Billy looks away.

“You shouldn’t do that,” he says.

“What?” Steve asks. “Seduce you?” He laughs quietly. “What if I want to?”

Billy shakes his head.

“We could never—“ he starts. “It’s too dangerous. And trust me. It’s not worth it for a date with me.”

Steve’s hand moves again. This time to his face. He pulls him gentle but insistently to meet his gaze. It’s that slightly cocky puppy dog one again. The one that put Billy in this situation in the first place. The one that he can’t deny. 

“I can handle the danger, Hargrove,” he says. He sounds confident. Like he did the first time they fought. It makes Billy feel warm inside and he grins the way he used to.

“Oh yeah?” he teases.

Steve looks a little more than mildly offended.

“I have _fought monsters_ , okay? Saved _lives_ ,” he insists.

Billy chuckles.

“Yeah I bet you have,” he agrees, and takes advantage of their closeness to kiss Steve’s pouting lips briefly. “Badass King Steve.”

Steve rolls his eyes, but smiles.

He leans back in and kisses Billy for real. Long enough for Billy’s smirk to dissipate. When they pull apart Steve’s face is serious again.

“So? Let me take you out?” he asks. He looks nervous. "There's a nice place a couple towns over..."

Billy aches knowing the last person Steve opened up to like this was Nancy Wheeler. That she dashed his fucking heart on the rocks. But he can’t reciprocate. He’s broken. And he’s not worth Harrington’s love.

He turns away before the itch behind his eyes turns to tears, and sighs tensely.

“Don't...” he warns. “Don’t push it.”

“What? Why?” Steve says. Billy wants to get up. To run away. But Steve’s gentle arm on his chest is holding him down more than any actual physical restraint. “Do you not want me?”

Billy’s fist clenches instinctively for just half a second and he flashes a quick glance up at the boy holding him.

“Of course I want you, Steve,” he mutters.

“Then what the hell is it?” Steve asks, almost angry. Compared to Billy, Steve never gets angry. But this might be his version of it. Billy finds himself more excited to learn how that works than he is to make him fight, and feels thrown by the sensitivity of the feeling.

“Bill...” Steve presses fingers into his chin again, pulling him back up to share a look, but before Billy can even make out all the emotions on his face he’s pulled him into a kiss.

For the first time in his memory, Billy doesn’t even kiss back. Just sits there until he can’t take it anymore, and then pulls away.

“Steve,” he insists. “My old man—“

“Doesn’t have to know,” Steve shuts him up. “I can be stealthy. Ask anyone. I’m a ninja.”

As if to prove his point, Steve swoops back in for another kiss. This one longer. And Billy can’t help but press into it a little before he pulls away again.

“I’m serious, Harrington, he’ll kill you,” Billy’s voice sounds wrecked, but fuck it. He’s laying in bed with a boy who he might be in love with, and who might be trying to love him back. He can show a little emotion. “I can’t lose you like that, man,” he admits fearfully. “It’d fucking end me.”

Steve’s laugh is short and relieved more than anything. And sounds just as fucked as Billy’s voice.

“Then date me, baby,” he says, and it’s almost a demand. He goes in for another kiss, but this one is short. Punctuation for his argument. Unsatisfactory. Billy waits for a moment for the rest of it, indignant, repressed, and then it hits him.

Neil isn’t here. And if he was, Billy would kill him rather than give up another boyfriend. He’s a fucking adult, or near enough. And he’s proved to himself anyway that he can fuck - and be fucked by - guys and still not be a pansy. So he’ll fuck who he wants. And he’ll date who he wants. And if he has to fight for it, well he’ll face the consequences later.

Because all he cares about right now is putting his lips back together with Harrington’s, and how good the big, soft hand feels on his beating chest.

The kiss is brief. Billy’s lips testing the waters before his brain has fully caught up. But a moment later his hand winds up through the hair at the back of Steve’s head to pull him closer and then they’re kissing again. Long, this time, and loud. Kisses taste sweeter when they mean something, Billy is slightly terrified to find. But he pushes the fear away and leans into it instead, moaning again against Harrington’s soft, needy lips.

“Fuck, I’m such a fag for you, Steve,” Billy groans between kisses, but he doesn’t stop or even slow down. "The idea of holding your hand under the table at some hole-in-the-wall diner..." he groans half out of need and half from exasperation.

But Steve doesn't need to hear any more. He smiles and kisses Billy again.

"Date me, pretty boy," he repeats, smirking against Billy's lips.

And Billy laughs into another kiss.

"Okay, King Steve," he says.

There's no more talking for a while after that. But there are lots of groans. Kissing isn't the only thing that tastes better when there's meaning behind it.


End file.
